If the mods approve of this title they hereby admit that they are all massive faggots

October 2009
9,983 Posts

In-game economies are one of the more fascinating aspects of multiplayer games, and one of the most complex would probably be the space-themed MMO EVE Online. Now, some players are leading an all-out assault on the Jita system, the largest trading hub in the game, in an attempt to destroy EVE’s economy. In response to this existential threat, the game’s developer CCP says: Have at it.

According to Eurogamer, the assault — called Burn Jita — is being led by Alexander Gianturco. Gianturco, who sometimes goes under the name ”The Mittani,” is leading a group called the Goonswarm, named for their affiliation with the Something Awful forums. The group has already amassed a fleet of 14,000 Thrasher destroyers in an attack scheduled to begin tomorrow, though the battle may have begun early.

Sometimes chided for being more like work than play, EVE has built a complex economy and an enormous base of dedicated players that sometimes go so far as to organize themselves into corporations outside the game to reap in-game benefits. Though many games have cooperative aspects, the lengths players go through to be participant in the game’s economy is truly breathtaking.

Speaking to Eurogamer, the game’s lead designer Kristoffer Touborg said that this kind of enormous player-generated event is what makes EVE unique, and as such, should be allowed to happen:

“It’s what makes Eve a really good game,” he said. “Do you want to play a 15 minute match of Call of Duty that you won’t remember the next day, or do you want to spend four months manufacturing 14,000 Thrashers to do this? It’s just so big and awesome.”
Touborg went on to say that the assault might be good for the game’s economy, where many well-off players will lose a hefty chunk of their buying power and be forced to start again.

Interestingly, the EVE wiki seems to indicate that Jita became the game’s largest trading hub through emergent play and was not designated by the developers. In that light, it seems fitting that player-generated economic boom be threatened by player-generated economic bust.

Unfortunately, this interesting exercise in virtual economies has a darker side. Prior to his attempt to destroy the existing EVE economy, Gianturco made waves in the EVE community for encouraging a depressed player to commit suicide, and for others to join in. This sparked understandable outrage, and eventually led to Gianturco being banned from the game for 30 days — the end of which is noticeably tied to the beginning of the Burn Jita assault.

Gianturco made waves in the EVE community for encouraging a depressed player to commit suicide, and for others to join in. This sparked understandable outrage, and eventually led to Gianturco being banned from the game for 30 days — the end of which is noticeably tied to the beginning of the Burn Jita assault.

Sounds like fun. I wonder if anyone will oppose them to try and save their economy...

If anyone wanted to, they'd be hopeless. Gianturco has been preparing 4 months for this and their sheer numbers outnumber nearly any organized force out there, so without the time to prepare for a counter-attack, they'd be crushed.

If anyone wanted to, they'd be hopeless. Gianturco has been preparing 4 months for this and their sheer numbers outnumber nearly any organized force out there, so without the time to prepare for a counter-attack, they'd be crushed.

couldn't they just, iunno, stash their wealth somewhere, maybe in lots of super cheap ships which would be needed after the burst?

Goons attacking Jita? This is...nothing new. It does show why I like EvE though, CCP just doesn't give a damn. As long as you're not exploiting glitches, cheating, or being a dick to players outside of the game, you're free to scam, murder, bait and ransom to your heart's content.

Just a question, what is Gianturco and Goonswarm? A player and a guild respectively?

This sounds like real world confrontations like NK and SK. Fun! I used to love these sorts of fights in MMOs made of guild vs guild and so on.

Gianturco is an asshat that got banned fo0r a month because he was an asshole.

Now he's gotten Goonswarm, who are a rather large Null-Sec Alliance(the terminology gets worse from here on in, grab a glossary) that own their own swath of space to back him up in his Crusade. Other null-sec alliances and pretty much everyone for that matter despise them all because the corporations in Goonswarm are composed of mostly trolls and assholes.

Just a question, what is Gianturco and Goonswarm? A player and a guild respectively?

This sounds like real world confrontations like NK and SK. Fun! I used to love these sorts of fights in MMOs made of guild vs guild and so on.

Gianturco is the person all 14 year old Goonswarmers look up to, a self-righteous dick who tried to bully someone into killing themselves. He's the leader of Goonswarm, one of the largest and most powerful corporations (read: guilds) in EVE. They're well known for acts of amazing dickiness and they've tried to crash the EVE economy and so this is nothing really new, if anything it's getting a bit stale.

Eve, while being too close to playing with Microsoft Excel for my liking, seems really fun in the right hands, especially seeing as you're at risk a lot of the time.
Love how the developers encourage this kind of thing and allow scamming:http://wiki.eveuniversity.org/Scams_in_Eve

Gianturco is an asshat that got banned fo0r a month because he was an asshole.

Now he's gotten Goonswarm, who are a rather large Null-Sec Alliance(the terminology gets worse from here on in, grab a glossary) that own their own swath of space to back him up in his Crusade. Other null-sec alliances and pretty much everyone for that matter despise them all because the corporations in Goonswarm are composed of mostly trolls and assholes.

Hope that was descriptive enough.

Why am I not surprised that it's just a bunch of hardasses who got their panties in a twist because their "oh so glorious leader" got what was rightfully coming at him for being a douchenozzle.